PMC Commentary

Biden's acronymous flub vs. Trump's outright lie

Right. Calling CVS "CVC" is much worse than Trump saying today that OTHER folks once called this virus the flu. https://t.co/Hd64AWXgPo

— The Carpentariat (@CarpenterPM) April 1, 2020

What dinosaurs really thought when that meteor hit

 

Trump, even a two-dimensional man?

Trump to the nation's governors on a conference call yesterday:

"I haven’t heard about testing in weeks. We’ve tested more now than any nation in the world. We’ve got these great tests and we’re coming out with a faster one this week. I haven’t heard about testing being a problem."

To us and 50 state executives, in which way does that "wartime" commander-in-chief's bit of Adolfian Big Lying afflict us? Breathlessly or breathtakingly? I'm never quite sure which to write. At any rate, I am indeed 99 percent certain that liddle Donald was merely lying bigly, since his aptitude for such is truly big-balled.

Montana's Gov. Steve Bullock, however, evidently took Trump at his word — i.e., that the president wasn't really lying; he's just that ignorant — in that he "tried to stress the disparity [his state] faces in trying to mitigate the spread of the virus because of the lack of testing," reports the Times.

Side by side with Trump, Gov. Bullock is Louis Pasteur and the president is pre-surgical Aljernon. This proposition strikes me as so plausible, it cracks by 1 percent my otherwise 100 percent certainty of Trump having lied.

On the third hand, there is yet another way to assess the president's astounding remark. And that is the way in which White House propaganda specialist Hogan Gidley put it: "The governors praised President Trump’s leadership, assistance and quick action to address this national crisis."

Or, as Trump himself later put it in his typically objective, self-detached manner: "I think for the most part, they were saying, 'Thank you for doing a great job.'" Even though, for weeks, he has not "heard about testing being a problem," which, just shy of America's immediate, death-inducing lack of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, is America's biggest problem.

Hence the debate continues: Is Trump actually complex enough to be even two-dimensional? — at once a proficient liar of Hitlerian magnitude and but a house-mouse ignoramus?

Bernie Watch; unfathomable ego and rapid response

It is admittedly a narrow path, but I would tell you, Seth, that there are a lot of people who are supporting me. We have a strong grass-roots movement who believe that we have got to stay in, in order to continue the fight to make the world know that we need Medicare for all, that we need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, that we need paid family and medical leave.

— The eternal gnat, last night, buzzing around on "Late Night with Seth Meyers"

To … make … the … world … know what Bernie knows.

That's Sandersism, in a nut's shell.

Not that his ideological objectives are ill advised, but what Bernie knows is subject to no honest interrogation, no temporary compromise, no needed adjustments, no nothing but unwavering absolutism, which is, for sure, the mindset of most ideologues, but even more so of reckless fanatics.

Moreover, is there a soul alive within shouting distance of the Andromeda Galaxy who is unaware of, unknowledgeable about, Sen. Sanders' policy goals? Hence the only possible rationale for his continuing to apocalyptically beat his four horses of ideology is … the unending fulfillment of Bernie's bottomless ego.       

Evangelical Christianity is now, literally, an existential threat to America

Religion poisons everything, warned atheist Christopher Hitchens convincingly, but whose analytical failing was in conflating theology with ontology. That is to say, to the best of my knowledge Hitch never disentangled his denunciation of man-made religious doctrines from his devout denial of some other-dimensional, higher existence; to him, revealing doctrinal absurdities was the same as disproving a supreme beingness. Thus as a construct of argumentation, Hitch's approach to preaching atheism contained a philosophical black hole.

Nonetheless, his axiom of "religion poisons everything" has received a noteworthy boost of late. I've seen videos of evangelical pastors informing their congregant petrie dishes of natural selection that God will protect them from covid-19 — incontestable proof that religion, as an agent of the pandemic, can poison even one's soft tissue. And then there's this, from WaPo:

"More than 550 parishioners packed Sunday service at the Life Tabernacle Church in the Louisiana town of Central. Megachurches in Ohio and Florida also reported their halls teeming with congregants. In Virginia, Liberty University last week welcomed back from spring break some 1,900 of students to its Lynchburg campus."

These defiantly oblivious Trumpian schmucks are, without a doubt, American society's greatest threats of today. Covid-19 is "not a concern" to us, says the Tabernacle Church's "pastor" as he sends forth his flock of more than 500 potentially contagious fatalities. "The virus, we believe, is politically motivated," he added dumbfoundingly, in that this virus, if politically motivated, can't kill? Then again, who the hell could know what this moron is thinking, except this: "We hold our religious rights dear, and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says" — omitting that those someones are epidemiologists and infectious disease experts, who are motivated less by their perfectly logical disdain of Trump than by their professional interest in saving lives.

And let us not depart without hearing from this nation's most invidious of all theocratic charlatans, Liberty University's president, Jerry Falwell Jr., who also propagates covid-19 as a plot to destroy that most invidious of all political charlatans. "I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their friends …" etc., etc., madness atop imbecility. Who could have known that Falwell's responsibility to his students would by yesterday result in a dozen of them being "sick with symptoms that suggested covid-19"?

Which brings us back to Hitchens. On at least a secular level, perhaps his entanglement of theology and ontology — religious doctrines and human existence — was not, after all, far off the mark.

My nomination for Most Fearless Reporter, 2020

Yamiche Alcindor, daughter of immigrants and White House correspondent of awesome temperament, phenomenal patience, piercing interrogations and extraordinarily thick skin, PBS NewsHour.

The center-left just. isn't. getting it.

The Times' David Leonhardt:

"The strangest part of President Trump’s coronavirus response is that it’s almost certainly damaging his chances of re-election.

"I realize that may sound surprising, given that his approval rating has been rising."

Surprising? The strangest part of Leonhardt's assertion is that so many center-left columnists still fail to grasp that, in 2016, the American political tradition collapsed on itself in a hellish absurdity. In writing "collapsed on itself" I mean to say that our accustomed politics of mass communication — manifest in America by at least the late-19th century's yellow journalism — was exploited by Trump to an unprecedented degree and in infernal outlandishness. All that has followed is shocking, but not surprising.

Especially his rising approval ratings in a time of — largely — his own self-created crisis. Read 'em and weep:

Approval ratings of 48 to 52 percent in general terms and on his gross mishandling of the covid-19 pandemic. And yet Congress, or rather the publicly known one-half of Congress with a head, a heart, and actual plans to tackle the crisis, the Democratic House, encounters disapproval, with a net-negative rating of 23 percent.

Go figure? No. This is the Twisted Age of Trumpian Politics, in which an inhuman geyser of foul fumes receives plaudits, the farsighted are scorned, and nothing figures.

From where we left him, Leonhardt picks up:

"But when you look beyond day-to-day events … you see that he is creating the conditions for a miserable summer and fall, with extended virus outbreaks and a deeper recession. The summer and fall, of course, are the crux of the presidential campaign."

His point being?

We've suffered three-and-half-miserable-fucking-years of this evil, chronically ill-tempered, overbloated gasbag of a useless POTUS, and for the umpteenth time, this time, believe Leonhardt et al., is that one unique time that will finally catch up to His Orange Rotundity.

The columnist concludes:

"It’s possible that Trump could somehow luck out and the virus will end up being less gruesome for all of us. But that’s not the likely outcome. And nobody should forget that he is choosing a path that endangers lives and jobs mostly because it feels better to him in the moment."

Again, Mr. Leonhardt, your point being? What, really, has changed? Trump is still lying, still insulting the world, destroying America, defaming the honorable and dominating the airwaves and so on ad infinitum. And yet what, really, has changed? His approval ratings have risen. Of course they have. For this is the Twisted Age, and all that once rationally figured is dead.

Just a sliver of 90 minutes and 32 seconds of Trump's cost-free airtime, just yesterday

Stirring oratory from the president of the United States — real FDR, John Kennedy stuff:

The Americans of every background are uniting to help our nation in this hour of need. It’s up to 151 countries, so when we say our nation, our nation and the world, when you think. Think of it, 151 countries. Somebody said to me today that wasn’t in this particular world, they didn’t know that we had that many countries. 151 countries. That’s something.

Not that a U.S. president who must deal with global issues should know that there are in fact 48 more countries than this president is aware of, but think of it, 195 countries. That's something. As somebody said to me today that was in this particular world, they knew that. (And Trump makes fun of Joe Biden?)

He also noted that we’ve been doing more tests than any other country anywhere in the world…. It’s also one of the reasons that we’re just about the lowest in terms of mortality rate.

Yet already noted by USA Today about his first claim: "Trump [omits] a huge piece of context: The United States population is more than six times the size of South Korea’s. On a per capita basis, South Korea is testing far more of its citizens than the U.S." As to his second claim, of 42 countries with known mortality rates, 19 others have lower rates than ours.

To correct every one of Trump's lies and airborne droplets of contagious disinformation in his Propaganda Hours and Two-Minute Hates would require Sisyphean heaves of determination that I simply don't have. But God bless 'em, three Washington Post reporters offer, this morning, a pithy survey of Trump's long-running snakeshit in their lede to "11 to 100,000: What went wrong with coronavirus testing in the U.S.":

We have it totally under control.
— Trump, in an interview, on Jan. 22

We're in great shape in our country. We have 11 [cases], and the 11 are getting better.
— Trump, in remarks, on Feb. 10

You may ask about the coronavirus, which is very well under control in our country.
— Trump, in a news conference, on Feb. 25

It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.
— Trump, in remarks, on Feb. 27

Anybody that needs a test, gets a test. They’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.
— Trump, in remarks at CDC, Mar. 6 [On this, see my entry of Mar. 27.]

Trump's speechwriter did conceive one abnormally well-written line in yesterday's remarks that we and 194 other countries hope to heaven is true : No darkness can overshadow the eternal light of American courage.

We'll know if it's true on the night of Nov. 3.

The gang that can't shoot, strategize, or even shit straight

The Associated Press:

"The billions of tax dollars headed for hospitals and states as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus response bill won’t fix the problem facing doctors and nurses: a critical shortage of protective gowns, gloves and masks.

"The problem isn’t a lack of money, experts say. It’s that there’s not enough of those supplies available to buy."

Perhaps one, underlying reason why is this tweet from February. For once the Trump administration tried like the gloating little engine it is to think just a trifle ahead — although the U.S. intelligence community had already warned that the virus would eventually hit at home — but in doing so, it characteristically and really fucked things up:

We have coordinated with U.S. organizations to transport more humanitarian relief to people in Wuhan. Personal protective equipment and other medical supplies donated by these organizations can help save lives in #China and help protect people from the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/57SN2TXfLP

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) February 7, 2020

Sweet Jesus, of course he would.

 

What's the present status of Biden vs. Trump? Before reading, take a drink.

Released just this morning is this ABC News/Washington Post poll, graded A+ by FiveThirtyEight. The poll was conducted 22-25 March among registered voters (it remains too early to survey you-bet-I-will voters) with a sampling of 1,003, has a 3.5 percent margin of error and blocs of Democrats-Republicans-independents of 30-24-37 percent, respectively.

Regrettably, the poll was also released in the absence of a trigger warning — which for once, I really could have used, even though the poll's findings were predictable. After all, these are Democrats we're talking about.

Joe Biden has … only bare majority support within his party and a massive enthusiasm gap in a November matchup against Donald Trump. Indeed, strong enthusiasm for Biden among his supporters – at just 24 percent – is the lowest on record for a Democratic presidential candidate in 20 years of ABC/Post polls. More than twice as many of Trump’s supporters are highly enthusiastic….

Another challenge for Biden … is this: Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who prefer Bernie Sanders for the nomination, 15 percent say they’d back Trump over Biden in the fall…. This is familiar: Twenty percent of Sanders supporters said they’d vote for Trump in spring 2016….

There’s déjà vu in these results: Hillary Clinton found herself in largely the same position four years ago. She, too, had a slim lead among Democrats for the nomination and ran essentially evenly with Trump among registered voters. And she lagged in enthusiasm, with a low of 32 percent very enthusiastic in September 2016. Biden is 8 points under that mark now.

The effects of enthusiasm on 2020 turnout cannot be overstated, especially for Democrats, since Republicans are both fanatical in their support of Trump and strangely wise enough to comprehend the power of the vote. Trump's vast incompetence and widely impeachable behavior have little to no negative effect on Republican voters; indeed, his wretchedness inspires them.

Meanwhile, though knowing that anybody with merely a pulse and no bunco-laden rap sheet would be a boundless improvement over Trump, three-fourths of Democrats sit and ponder, and sit and ponder, if voting for probably the most presidentially qualified man since LBJ deserves their strong enthusiasm. This familiar phenomenon is, to instead understate things, distressing.

And then there's Bernie, dear, devoted, man of the people, horribly destructive Bernie. The days in which he could be firing up his 85 percent are flying away like calendar pages in an old movie. The 15 percent are hopeless, of course; but many among the 85, being tepid at best in their enthusiasm, could use some of the senator's rousing, roiling, evangelical tub-thumping for Joe. Turnout among this bloc is, or could be, singularly critical to Biden's victory. And yet Bernie just sits and ponders — much akin to the shameful three-fourths of Dems.

Panic is not yet called for. But it seems to me that panic, as a motivator, would not be a bad thing. For in politics, complacency can be a killer.

"Taking undesirables for a ride" still has that old mob meaning

Bernie could still be a decisive threat to a Biden victory

Last week, after being crushed by yet more Biden delegates than Bernie Sanders can ever survive, the senator's campaign manager promised a clinical reassessment of the revolution's preexisting condition of a dead end.

Many took that as a hopeful signal that Sen. Sanders had finally detoxed and gotten clean. But, this is the famously relapsing, campaign-addicted Bernie we're talking about. Thus, said a high-level aide this Tuesday, "Sanders is still running for president. If there is a debate in April, he plans to be there."

Joe Biden does not. "My focus is just dealing with this crisis right now. I haven't thought about any more debates," the Democratic nominee told CNN a day later. "I think we've had enough debates. I think we should get on with this." (The network also reported that a "D.N.C. spokeswoman declined to say whether a debate would still take place in April as planned or move later in the calendar." Forgetaboutit.)

"That the Sanders campaign is [now] signaling … that he would be on a debate stage in April is a strikingly public sign of the Vermont senator’s determination to wield political influence and challenge Mr. Biden for primacy despite the former vice president’s nearly insurmountable delegate lead clinch of the nomination," wrote the NY Times.

Challenging Biden for primacy is nothing more than pathetic. Nearly two-thirds of the remaining delegates Bernie would need to win, which, simply, is "not going to happen unless there is some catastrophic event" — i.e., a Biden stroke, or worse — said, to the Wall Street Journal, a former delegate counter for Pete Buttigieg. But Bernie's "determination to wield political influence" is no quantitative, nor somatic, nor simply pathetic matter. It could, instead, mean Biden's loss of hundreds of thousands of votes throughout the republic and, more critically, in essential swing states.

For it translates into dragging out Bernie's withered candidacy until July's Democratic convention — and its formulation of an unread platform — leaving only three months, not six, until Election Day. And that translates into half the time that Sanders could rally his troops into tolerating, at least, a vote for Biden. I write could rather than can, since Bernie's commitment to such a task remains an empirical uncertainty.

As insanely, unshakably devoted as the incumbent's troops are, Joe Biden may need every possible vote. Even with unprecedented, self-induced calamity surrounding Trump from every political angle, Democrats & Friends should not take 2020 for granted. On the president's side are a fanatical army, Russian interference, voter suppression, post-truthism, televised oceans of vicious lies and wrongly claimed credit, and, perhaps above all, his wholesale absence of any scruples.

I took 2016 for granted. I won't this time around. The "opposition" is more than that; it's a killing, political enemy in need of dispositive extermination. The Democratic nominee must muster all possible forces, yet toward that objective, Bernie Sanders is still an obstruction. And that — unless the Vermont senator soon comes to his senses — must be factored in to Joe Biden's potential.

I weep at Trump's nobility, and curse this Democratic woman governor's pettiness

Reports a Detroit business publication:​​​​

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suggested Friday that a growing rift with the White House is affecting shipments of medical supplies to Michigan amid exponential growth in confirmed coronavirus cases.

"When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on," Whitmer said Friday on WWJ 950AM. "What I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan."

Whitmer didn't say who has told vendors to stop sending medical supplies to the state, but strongly implied the order came from President Donald Trump's administration."

Well what a typically hyperpartisan, Democratic bitch she is. Trump has repeatedly called for a bipartisan or rather nonpartisan effort in defeating the virus' spread, which of course he had nothing to do with. And yet there she defiantly sits — and right after the president had so perfectly practiced, the night before Whitmer's radio interview, what he's been preaching all along:

"Your governor of Michigan, I mean, she's not stepping up," said Trump on Sean Hannity's television show Thursday, addressing her as merely "a woman governor," not as Gov. Whitmer. "I don't know if she knows what's going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government. She doesn't get it done. And we send her a lot."

God he makes us proud. God! And as to his last point? — Trump's not God's, if there's a difference: "On Monday, Whitmer said one unnamed hospital received a shipment last weekend from the federal government of 747 N95 protective masks." The woman governor noted that "that allotment of [masks] didn't cover one shift." In Actual Reality News, unrelated to Hannity's network, "the state needs 400,000 N95 protective medical masks each day for the next several weeks to keep up with demand."

Why didn't somebody inform Mr. Trump of this? Just one word of the need and he would have been all over it like a Republican senator on a corporate bailout. After all, our president, while political as they all are, is so exceedingly noble as well, he could not care less about making a Democratic governor of a vital 2020 swing state look incompetent.

Could I get a virus test anywhere close to home?

But — but I think — I think, importantly: Anybody right now and yesterday — anybody that needs a test gets a test. We — they’re there. They have the tests. And the tests are beautiful.

— The Orange Huckster, speaking at the CDC, March 6th

Earlier this week, somewhere around March 24th?, I became nauseated and diarrheic. This was soon accompanied by advancing shortness of breath. After the nausea and diarrhea vanished, I began running a fever of 100.1. The first two symptoms are described in a coronavirus factsheet I visited as early signs of possible infection; later would come fever. Check, check, check and check.

Out of caution — though not the customary abundance of caution — I remained at home throughout, and still am. Further, I searched for a testing site in my area — roughly a 25-mile-radius zone of well over 100,000 inhabitants — just in case my symptoms worsened. (They didn't.) My search produced nada. 

So guess what, Mr. Trump? I think — I think, importantly: Anybody right now and yesterday — anybody that needs a test will probably not get a test. You — you’re not there. You have too few tests. And the testing situation is hideous.